Before Of Monsters and Men stormed the U.S. last year like the gentlest of Vikings, you might not have pegged the Icelandic indie folk-pop collective for the mainstream success they’ve since achieved. They’re from Iceland, after all, and good luck trying to spell their names, though they do sing in English and their music slots nicely between bands like Mumford & Sons, who played Coachella a year ago, and the Lumineers, who play here on Saturday.

Singer-guitarists Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Pórhallsson write and sing songs that feel fresh and familiar, often pairing wistful lyrics with catchy sing-along choruses. With seven musicians in all on stage they add touches like accordion and trumpet to songs such as “Mountain Sound,” which had the crowd up and singing early in the set. All around me people were dancing, waving their hands in air and clapping along to tunes such as “King and Lionheart” and “Little Talk.”

Of Monsters and Men had one of the larger crowds of the late afternoon; an hour or so later, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs packed the field in front of the Main Stage for a sharp set led by the always fun to watch singer Karen O. Some of that’s due to what she wears: On Friday she was dressed in a glittery lilac suit with gold lame ruffles down the outer seams of her pants, sparkly green eye shadow, bright red lips, bleached blonde hair with plenty of dark roots, and that’s barely doing the look justice.

She’s a mesmerizing performer, but guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase give the band its propulsive muscle. With 50 or so minutes to play, the focused mostly on the well-known, building to a peak at the end with songs including “Soft Shock,” the gentler “Maps” and the closer “Heads Will Roll” which drew huge cheers from its opening notes.

Other scenes from Friday wanderings on the festival grounds:

-- Lee “Scratch” Perry: The 76-year-old Jamaican reggae legend is a well-known eccentric and in Gobi on Friday he was all that and a bucket of dub. Each song goes about the same: The bass player and percussionist set a rhythm, Perry wanders around the stage chanting hear-to-decipher lyrics, random snippets like “got to get higher,” or “I am looking in the mystic eyes,” or “jungle safari.” It’s odd, but strangely watchable for at least a few minutes.-- Palma Violets: One of the latest bands the British music press has gone bonkers for, but just that doesn’t mean they’re going to translate well in America. This young quartet, though, delivered a high-energy performance in the Mojave Tent Friday afternoon to suggest there’s promise there. Put them somewhere between the Arctic Monkeys and the Libertines, and there’s still no way to predict which of those brackets they’ll end up closer to a year or two from now. Fun stuff here, though.

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